Entitled Delta Platinum Pulls Rank On Passenger Who Chose “His” Seat (Why Do People Write Fake Stories On Reddit?)
I skim Reddit constantly in the American, Delta, and United forums for story ideas…sometimes there are some real gems but so often the stories appear to be tall tales written by Chat GPT. What is it about that platform that attracts such pointless fiction?
The Fictional Tale Of The Entitled Delta Platinum Medallion Who Demanded Seat 27A – What’s The Point Of Making Up Such A Story?
Time is money and I hate wasting it with fake stories, even ones that are fairly humorous or clever. Life’s too complicated enough as it is… the truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Increasingly, I see stories like the one below, written about an “entitled” Delta Air Lines Platinum Medallion member who demanded his preferred economy last seat on a flight from Amsterdam (AMS) to Minneapolis (MSP):
This happened a few weeks ago on a flight from Schiphol to Minneapolis. I was in 27A—bulkhead window in main cabin.
The flight wasn’t even full, so I was already mentally settling in for a smooth ride.
Boarding’s nearly wrapped up when this guy stops at my row, looks at me like I’ve committed a grave offense, and says, “You’re in my seat.”
I glanced up and said, “27A?”
“Yeah. I’m Platinum. I always sit here. The airline usually handles it.”
I gave him a blank stare. “Well, this is my seat. 27A. I’m assigned here.”
He waves his hand like I’m just being unreasonable. “Come on, you can take mine. It’s a few rows back. I always sit bulkhead.”
I didn’t flinch. “Then you should’ve booked it. That’s not my problem.”
He kept going, “You’re really gonna make me sit in the back just because of a seat assignment?”
I said, “Yes. You’re really gonna make me explain to you that your status doesn’t affect my seat? I think we’re done here. Have a nice flight.”
At this point, I put on my headphones (in listen-through mode, because, of course, I was eavesdropping) and opened my book. He flagged down an FA.
“He’s refusing to move! I’m Platinum! I fly this route all the time! I always sit here. The airline has to accommodate me!”
She didn’t even look at me—just turned to him and said, “Sir, your seat is 34C. This passenger is in his assigned seat. You need to go to your seat.”
He didn’t back down. “But I’m Platinum! Doesn’t that count for something?”
She just gave him that perfect flight attendant smile—the one that says, “I’ll be polite, but I’m done with you.” “It doesn’t override his seat assignment.”
He wasn’t done, though. “You really can’t do anything about this?”
“I can ask you again to take your seat, but if you want to talk to a gate agent, we can delay the flight while you sort it out.”
At that, he muttered something about “loyalty not meaning anything anymore” and stomped off to row 34, clearly a shell of the Platinum status he thought entitled him to everything.
If there’s any moral lesson to this fable it is that such passengers should be pitied and ignored. Just put your headphones back on and hit the flight attendant call button if the disturbance continues.
But the story doesn’t pass my smell test…I mean, the only thing that is missing is everyone clapping as Mr. Platinum made the “walk of shame” back to his seat.
Nevertheless, I’m covering it not for the sake of discussion over the theoretical incident (because I would be surprised if a situation like this ever really would come up) but because I’m seeing more and more posts like this not only on Reddit, but on Flyertalk too…
Do people have that much time on their hands?
Are people so starved for attention that they make up stories in aviation forums just to see who reacts? Even when they are anonymous?
I’ll continue to cover stories I pull from Reddit…but certainly not any I believe to be created by AI. Here, I just wanted to see if any of you can help me understand what drives folks to create these stories.
image: Delta